The present invention relates to a system and a method for control of goods in a store such as a super-market, a convenience store, or the like, in which goods are arranged on gondolas and sold.
A number of systems for determining the layout of goods on gondolas have been proposed. These systems lay out each of the goods on a specific shelf, output a list of the sales of each of the goods; automatically determine the number of goods on each gondola on the basis of the original layout of goods and the sales of the goods; and modify the layout of goods in an interactive manner with the planner who planned the layout of the goods. See for example, the Goods Catalogue, "SPACE-MATE, Merchandising Activate Support System", Nippon Electric Co., Ltd.
According to the automatic determining function of the foregoing conventional systems, nothing is considered with respect to the rearrangement of the positions of each of the goods and a new layout of goods on the shelves. In addition, with regard to an increase or decrease in the available quantity, nothing is considered as to how to effectively use the planner's knowledge about the layout of goods. For instance, the planner may want to arrange more goods of a private-brand than goods of a national-brand. Likewise, since certain goods are strategic goods, the planner may not want to reduce the available number although sales are low. There is no mechanism to utilize this know-how in an interactive manner on the basis of the judgment of the planner. Therefore, there are the following problems.
(1) A large number of possible plans exist for making available goods, and so obtaining the optimum layout of the goods requires much labor.
(2) Since the number of kinds of goods is large, the know-how of the planner cannot be effectively used for all of the goods. Therefore, a satisfactory layout of the goods cannot be always provided.
(3) The layout of the goods depends on the ability of the planner, and so satisfactory layout of the goods cannot be always determined.